June 2, 2002

Father Owen's Homilies

Corpus Christi: Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord, June 2, 2002

You may remember that a few years ago PBS offered a seven part series on Mythology. Bill Moyers narrated it. The centerpiece was the scholarly work of Joseph Campbell. Moyers interviewed Campbell throughout the series. Part of Campbell’s work consisted in discovering common themes in most of the mythologies in the cultures of the world. His work uncovered such common themes and symbols as virgin births, sacrifice -- both human and animal, household gods like guardian angels. There were others of these archetypes or common symbols and themes.

The program told of a practice of an Eskimo culture that consisted in this. After they killed a walrus, the hunters immediately cut open the chest, cut out the heart, cut it up and passed pieces of the heart around to the rest of the hunters. The hunters respected the courage of the walrus and hoped to take something of the courageous spirit of the whale to themselves as they ate the flesh and tasted the blood. As I watched at program, the parallel to our Holy Communion struck me immediately. When we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, we want to be courageous like Jesus as we carry our own crosses. We all carry the cross of self-centeredness each and every day. The food of the Body and Blood of the Lord gives us strength for walking the way of Jesus.

Those Eskimo hunters bonded themselves to each other as they all ate from the same heart. We bond to each other as well when we eat of the same Jesus; we can grow into such deep reverence that we are willing to wash the feet of our sisters and brothers.